Airbnb Just Bought HotelTonight

Airbnb hasn't been shy about expanding beyond home shares in the last two-and-a-half years. Its latest move, however, may be one of its biggest: Today, Airbnb announced that it's acquiring HotelTonight. Yes, that HotelTonight, the one that lets you book discounted, last-minute, even night-of, hotel rooms at spots like the

“A big part of building an end-to-end travel platform is serving every guest, whether they plan their trip a year or a day in advance. Working with the incredible team at HotelTonight, we will offer guests an unparalleled last-minute travel experience that provides unique, memorable hospitality on every trip, on any schedule, at any time," said Brian Chesky, Airbnb's co-founder and CEO, in a press release. The deal also means more of one guest type: Business travelers. "More than 400,000 companies are using Airbnb to help manage their travel, and same-day bookings are now growing 2x year over year," the company wrote in the release. The site currently offers a filter for rentals with strong Wi-Fi and desk spaces for business travelers, but the HotelTonight acquisition adds an even greater pool of options for companies and road warriors to choose from, outside of the listings on Airbnb.

While Airbnb has built its platform primarily through home shares—either people renting out single rooms or their entire home to guests—this isn't its first foray into hotels. In fact, the company has been actively recruiting hotels since early last year, when it launched official "B&B" and "boutique" categories for them and partnered with a third-party service, SiteMinder, to streamline how they upload new rooms onto the site. Previously, each hotel had been manually transferring information from Airbnb listings to their own calendars, which led to hiccups like double bookings. Since then, Airbnb says it has increased its hotels, B&Bs, hostels, and resorts by more than 152 percent (however, the company hasn't publicized just how many of these properties are on the site).

If you're obsessed with HotelTonight's Daily Drop (which offers up to 30 percent off a room but only 15 minutes to book) or just love booking last-minute vacations, don't worry: HotelTonight isn't disappearing. For now, the sites and apps will remain separate, though there's talk of shared inventory in the future. And if you're a home host, you won't see much of a difference. According to Airbnb, close to 90 percent of guests who booked a hotel room as their first Airbnb booked a home for their second.

And it's not like we didn't see this coming: Chesky has been outspoken about making Airbnb the Amazon of travel, a one-stop shop where you can book every single part of your journey, from your room, to your meal, to even your concert. The company has continued expanding tours (called "Experiences") since late 2016, and branded apartment complexes that opened in late 2018. Plus, the company is expected to launch tricked-out luxury rentals (years after its acquisition of the aptly named Luxury Retreats) later this year. Next up? Potentially rental cars—or even flights. Though Chesky has been adamant that the company isn't building an airline, Airbnb recently hired Fred Reid, Virgin America's founding CEO, to lead its transportation division. His end-to-end platform might be closer than we think.